Marc Bekoff, a professor emeritus at the University of Colorado at Boulder and a world-renowned animal behaviorist, has broken new ground studying animal, particularly dog, ethics and morality. Bekoff is venturing, along with prominent theologians, into the area of animal souls.

Marc Bekoff, professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, is known for ground-breaking, long-term contributions in the field of animal behavior.

For centuries, scientists said animals were driven by instinct or conditioning, and that emotion and conscience were uniquely human traits. However, for Bekoff it’s a no-brainer that many animals, and dogs in particular, experience a wide range of emotions, including compassion and empathy — a foundation for morality.

Bekoff provides a long list of observable emotional and ethical behavior of dogs that will seem familiar to many pet owners. They include:

Dogs have a sense of fair play. They dislike cheaters. They experience joy in play. They delight in friends. The big guys handicap themselves in games with little guys.

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